Always Back in His Arms
by fireboltwiccan
Summary: After a fight, will things get better or will it end for good? Rated M for a reason. Charlie/Hermione


**Disclaimer – I wish so very badly but I do not own anything Harry Potter related. **

Hermione stared at the book in her lap, not really reading the words written on it. Her thoughts were on many other things. Ron and Lavender had just announced that they were expecting a child, Harry and Ginny were having their second child and then there was her – alone sitting in front of the fire with only her book for company. Not that she was complaining, there were times when the company of books were much preferred than people. But not tonight, tonight she wondered how her best friends had managed to move on with their lives with such ease, all the necessary milestones in their lives being achieved – finding a significant other, marriage, children. Why was she not able to live her life with such ease?

She sighed and gave up on getting any reading done. She stared into the fire and thought about her last relationship – the one that had ended disastrously. He had been her world for nearly year and she thought she'd been his. At the beginning she was swept away in the romantic notion of having a secret relationship, the feeling of something entirely her own, something that, at least for a while, would not be judged or interrogated by the people she called her family.

Then things started to go downhill when the wedding invitations started arriving. The first one, Harry and Ginny's, had been fine. They'd both agreed to show up separately and without dates. They ended up spending most of the reception together anyways. This continued on with George and Angelina's wedding and Percy's wedding.

By the time Ron's wedding rolled around she was getting sick of showing up for weddings alone and having people shoot her looks of sympathy and enquiring about her inability to find a good man. So she asked him, what was the harm of telling everyone about their relationship, to be able to show up together, celebrate together? He'd flinched at the question and simply said he wasn't ready to tell anyone, he wanted it to be just them. And while she had tried to understand that, it was getting harder and harder and that had led to their second biggest fight.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

She looked him in the eye, "Why? Why don't you want to tell them about us? I'm tired of hiding Charlie."

Charlie looked away from her and stared at the wall for a long moment and sighed loudly. "Look Hermione, I'm just not… I'm not ready to tell my family about us. Who knows how they'd react? I don't want to have to deal with all the judgment just yet"

She rolled her eyes, "What judgment? You're too old for me? I'm too young for you? We not suited for each other? We have nothing in common? We've been together for almost a year Charlie, wouldn't that prove all of them wrong?!"

He narrowed his eyes at her, "Why are you so eager to bring a date to this wedding? To show Ron that you've moved on from your relationship with him?!"

She glared at him. How dare he think this was about showing up Ron, at his own wedding too! "You know damn well that was years ago and I have nothing but brotherly feelings towards him. Why in Merlin's name would you think that?" She stared at him as he refused to answer her. "11 months we've been together, sleeping together for at least 10 months and saying we love each other for 8, living together for 3 and you still think I have feelings for your brother" she said quietly, "I have nothing left to say to you Charlie Weasley. You can do whatever you want, I'll be staying at the Burrow until the wedding, which I obviously will be attending alone again." She stood up and headed for the door. There was a last shred of hope she held on to, a shred of hope that prayed he would stop her, ask her to stay and agree with her but he just sat there and stared at his hands. Tears spilling out her eyes, she walked out.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

She thought that was the worst she could have ever felt. She badly wanted to make up with him before the wedding but she forced herself not it. If she kept giving in she'd never get what she wanted and what she wanted, badly, was a relationship that was open, that didn't need to be a secret from the people she considered her family.

The day before the wedding she saw happy Ron was, in love with his bride to be and her resolve weakened. She missed her boyfriend and she wanted to be in his arms, secret or not. She made up her mind to talk to him the next day at the wedding.

And then Charlie had fucked it all up and brought a date to the wedding. Some tall, skinny, blonde confection that was the complete opposite of her. She thought she'd seen wrongly when they had walked in, her hanging off his arm but when she saw that blonde…thing lean in and plant a kiss on Charlie's lips she nearly broke down in front of everyone.

Luckily for her, she remembered where she was. She was Hermione Granger, she may have had an emotional range of a teaspoon but by god she was going to act like it and not ruin her best friend's wedding. Steely resolve in her eyes, she went through the motions of the entire wedding and reception, artfully avoiding Charlie as much as she could.

Halfway through the reception she managed to slip out, she headed as far away as she could, sat beneath and tree and finally let the tears fall. How could he? He brought someone else to the wedding, as a date! Was that blonde girl the kind that he was willing to introduce the family while she was not? Was she not good enough for him?

She heard someone approaching where she was and hastily wiped the tears off her face. She really wasn't in the mood to explain to anyone why she was crying. When a pair of shoes stopped by her side she finally looked up and saw the face of the one person she'd been avoiding all night. She stood up and patted down her dress, "What do you want Charlie?"

He reached out and brushed a stray tear from her eye, "Hermione I –"

She pulled away from his touch as though it burned her, "You should go back, wouldn't want you to leave your" she felt herself choke on her own words, "date all alone do you?" He stepped closer to her, as though to pull her into a hug, and she stepped back and hugged her arms around her body. "Don't…just don't come near me". She met his gaze, "How could you Charlie, I begged you for weeks to make our relationship public and you refused and the one time I decided to stand my ground you go and bring someone else as your date. I can't do this anymore Charlie, I can't be with someone who obviously would rather be with someone like that and I refuse to be treated as someone to be ashamed off. I'm done".

And she walked off without looking back.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sure, that wasn't really a fight, considering most of the conversation had been one-sided but it effectively ended their relationship.

She glanced at the clock, it was nearly 2 in the morning. How was it that nearly 24 hours ago she was all ready to mend fences and now here she was, newly single for the past 3 hours. It didn't help that she knew Charlie was only a couple of flights of stairs and a door away. She stared at the stairs, she badly wanted to go up and demand an explanation from him, but doing that would undermine her entire speech. Oh who was she kidding, she was Hermione freaking Granger, if she wanted an explanation she was going to get it, pride be damned.

She set her book down and marched up the stairs to his room and knocked on the door. She waited a couple of minutes before she heard the door creaking open. He stared at her, trying to blink away the sleep in his eyes before fully opening the door and letting her in.

She shut the door and leaned against it and watched him walk back to his bed and sit on it. Not saying a thing, he simply looked at her. She could see his eyes roving over her entire body and she blushed remembering that she was only dressed in one of his old t-shirts and a pair of shorts that were hidden by the t-shirt. Her eyes dropped from his, only to realize that he was only in his pajama pants. She closed her eyes and told herself to focus, now was not the time to be distracted. She opened them and found him looking at her expectantly.

"Why?" Her voice broke on just that one word. "Why did you bring her? Why did you refuse to bring me"

He sighed deeply and walked over to her and held her hands, "Hermione, has anyone ever told you how stupid men can be? Because I am living proof of that, I had the most amazing woman in my life and I let her walk out, twice. Why? Because I was scared."

She looked up at him and raised a disbelieving eye brow at him. "Scared?" She scoffed.

"I can handle dragons, I can handle my brothers, I can even handle Crookshanks on a bad day but I saw all my brothers getting married, having children – settling down and that scared me because eventually that was going to be me. I always thought I would be alone, live my life for my job and live in an eternal bachelorhood. Then you came into my life and I started thinking about what kind of house we'd live in, what kind of wedding you would like and what our children would look like and I know it seems stupid and ridiculous but admitting our relationship to everyone would make those thoughts a possibility."

She pulled back from him as tears filled her eyes once again, "The thought of eventually marrying me and having children with me was that scary?"

He tightened his grip and pulled himself closer to her, "I thought that I wouldn't be able to do it, I'd be terrible family man. So I tried to go back to my old bachelor ways, which is why I brought her as my date today but I couldn't. Every minute of every day I was thinking of you and how much I hurt you and when I saw you crying tonight I hated myself. I hated that I put your through this pain and I wished I could take it all away and make it right. But no words I could think of were enough." His hand brushed her cheek, "If you find some way to every forgive me, I will spend the rest of my life trying to make you happy. The first thing I would do would be to tell the whole world about the wonderful woman I have and how happy she makes me."

She leaned into his touch, inhaling his scent, she sighed. "Oh Charlie, the last week has been awful. I missed you so much and today I was going to tell you that it didn't matter anymore that you wanted to keep us a secret that I would be with you anyway and then you showed up with another woman. It hurt, so bad." Tears prickled her eyes as she looked up at him and that's when she noticed that his face was wet with tears too.

"You can't be such a jackass and then say something so romantic like that." She reached up and wiped his tears away. "I love you, so much."

And then she said the words he was waiting with baited breath to hear, "I forgive you."

Her arms wrapped around his neck as she pulled him to her lips. He pushed her against the door and deepened the kiss as his hands gripped her waist tightly pulling her flush against him. He moved his lips from hers to gently tugged her on her ear lobe and whispered "I love you too."

He kissed his way down her neck, pulling her t-shirt down one side to reveal a creamy shoulder. She moaned she his teeth scraped against her skin, she moved her hands from his neck and ran them over his chest, reveling in the feel of his skin and his hard muscles. He kissed her hard again as he lifted her up to wrap her legs around his waist and effortlessly carried her to his bed without breaking this kiss. He laid her down and hovered over her staring into her deep, brown eyes. "I don't know how I could have ever let you go, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me".

She would have replied him but his hand had slipped under her t-shirt and was teasing her breast. All she could do was moan and arch back to give him better excess. He grinned widely at her reaction. He moved his hand and reached down and swiftly removed her t-shirt, exposing her to him. And then he did nothing but stare. She squirmed under his heated gaze wanting him to touch her, anywhere. She felt the moisture build between her legs as he just stared at her with a combination of lust and love in his eyes.

She reached up to the waistband of his pants and slipped her hands inside. Her nails grazed the sides of his thighs, moving tantalizingly to him but not quite touching him. He groaned in frustration as she continued doing this, "Two can play this teasing game" she said winking at him. He groaned again as her fingers brushed against him and his mouth went to her breast. She gasped at the contact and gripped his member, hard. He moaned against her breast, his tongue swept against her nipple and she arched into his mouth. Her hands moved to his ass and she gripped it and pulled him closer to her, lifting her hips to meet him. He moved his mouth up to her neck and lightly bit her, "Fuck Hermione, you're killing me here."

She moaned, "Charlie…please…I need-"

Charlie kissed her, "I know what you need". He reached down and pulled off her shorts and underwear and his pants followed quickly. "Charlieeeee…" she whimpered. As soon as his name left her mouth she felt his fingers brushed against her core. Desperate for more contact, she pushed herself against his fingers. He let out a strained chuckle and slipped a finger inside her. She moaned loudly and her hands gripped his shoulders tightly. He slipped another finger inside her and she thought she was going to lose her mind and then he started pumping his fingers in and out. She writhed under his torture. His mouth was moving about her body, leaving hot kisses everywhere, his other hand playing with her breasts. "Charlie, Charlie, Char-" Her head tilted back as she let out a silent scream as she came.

He pulled out his fingers and leaned down and kissed her on the lips, "we're not quite done yet sweetheart." Before, she could come down from the high she was on, she felt him pressing against her entrance, hot and hard. She lifted one leg and wrapped it around his waist and he plunged into her. They moaned in sync as moved in her. He started moving faster and pumping into her harder. Their breathing becoming shallow, her nailed scored his back as she felt her walls tighten around him. Her climax triggered his and he moaned out her name as he spilled into her and collapsed on top of her.

Not wanting to crush her with his weight, he rolled to the side and pulled her into his side, his arm wrapped around her waist. Her eyes closed, content and happy after their love making. She felt his lips on her cheek, she opened her eyes and saw him staring at her. In that one look she knew that no matter what fights they had, no matter what they disagreed about, she would always go back to him but she also knew that he would do everything in his power to never hurt her again.

This was love. This was real. This time nothing would tear them apart.


End file.
